Introduced with the Education Services for Overseas Students (Registration Charges) Amendment (Streamlining Regulation) Bill 2015 to reform the international education sector, the bill amends the:

Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000

,

Education Services for Overseas Students (TPS Levies) Act 2012

,

National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011

and

Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011

to: create Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) agencies, including the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency and the Australia Skills Quality Authority, with direct responsibility for providers’ registration and monitoring providers’ compliance; extend the compliance monitoring and enforcement action that may be taken by an ESOS agency for a breach of either the English Language Courses for Overseas Students Standards or the Foundation Program Standards;

Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000

to: provide for an internal review process for decisions made by delegates of ESOS agencies; provide the minister with the power to issue a direction to an ESOS agency about the performance of its functions; enable the Tuition Protection Service (TPS) Director to obtain certain information or documents, be assisted by TPS officers, and recommend that an ESOS agency take action against a provider; enable providers to receive more than 50 per cent of the tuition fees for a course in certain circumstances; remove the definition of a ‘study period’; remove the requirement for non-exempt providers to maintain an account to which all tuition fees paid prior to a course commencing are held; and remove the requirement to report all instances of student default; and

to: require all institutions currently registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students to re-register by 31 December 2010; introduce two new registration criteria; require providers to maintain and publish a list of persons/agents who represent them; provide the minister with a discretion to enable a suspended provider to accept monies in certain circumstances; enable national alignment of regulatory actions; and provide for regulations to be made in relation to: providers’ agents, and criteria to be applied when consideration is given to whether a course is a suitable alternative course.

Part of a package of three bills to establish a tuition protection service (TPS), the bill: establishes the TPS levy to be imposed on registered providers and sets out the basis for its calculation; provides that certain providers may be exempt from components of the levy; and requires the dollar amounts of the administrative fee component and the base fee component to be published annually.

to: rebase the compulsory annual registration charge payable by all Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) registered providers; and replace the initial registration charge payable by registered providers with an annual entry to market charge.

to create a new fee structure to replace the current tiered charges structure for the annual registration charge payable by all providers registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students.

to clarify that a registered education provider pays all entry to market charges but is not charged more than once if its registration period is less than two years and it seeks renewal of that registration.